Former League stars off to Brazil

England manager Roy Hodgson has included a number of players that began their playing careers on the books of Football League clubs in his squad for this summer's World Cup. Only four members of the 23-man party have not appeared at senior level in The Football League or at youth level for one of the League's current 72 clubs (Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Jack Wilshere and Luke Shaw).

In total, 16 of the 23 players selected by Roy Hodgson have played first team football in The Football League during their career, most notably Southampton's Rickie Lambert who enjoyed spells in the lower divisions with Blackpool, Macclesfield Town, Stockport County, Rochdale and Bristol Rovers before joining the Saints in 2009.

Others include Phil Jagielka who began his career at Sheffield United, Leighton Baines who started at Wigan Athletic and Joe Hart who made 54 appearances with his first club, Shrewsbury Town.

Nine of the 23-man party named earlier today were developed in full or in part by the Youth Development programmes at one of the League's current 72 members, including Adam Lallana (AFC Bournemouth), Raheem Sterling (QPR), Daniel Sturridge (Coventry City) and Phil Jones (Blackburn Rovers). While Jack Wilshere began his development at Luton Town, who return to The Football League next season.

Each season, Football League clubs invest around £60m in Youth Development and during the 2013/14 a total of 235 players under the age of 21 made their professional debut for one of our 72 clubs.

Finally, eleven of the squad have had loan spells at Football League clubs during their careers including Danny Welbeck (Preston North End), Ben Foster (Wrexham and Watford), Gary Cahill (Burnley and Sheffield United), James Milner (Swindon Town) and Ross Barkley (Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds United).

During 2013/14, a total of 620 players played on loan at clubs in The Football League including 251 players registered with Premier League clubs.

The Football League would like to wish Roy Hodgson and the England team every success in Brazil this summer.